8-27-09

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thursday, 27 August 2009

 
8-27-09
Badlands Journal
High-speed rail EIR inadequate… Badlands Journal editorial board
http://www.badlandsjournal.com/2009-08-27/007384
Planning and Conservation League
August 26, 2009                                                                             
Court Supports Claims that the High Speed Rail Authority's Environmental Review is Faulty
Sacramento - Today Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny issued a decision supporting contentions by the Planning and Conservation League and other plaintiffs that the California High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) did not adequately study the potential impacts before choosing the Pacheco Pass route into the Bay Area from the Central Valley. This decision means the choice to build the train along the Pacheco Pass route will be rescinded and the impacts and alternatives thoroughly studied.
Tina Andolina, Legislative Director for the Planning and Conservation League said, "We hope Authority will get right to work on a thorough and comprehensive review. The public supports high speed rail but wants it done right since we simply can't afford to throw $10 billion at a project that is done haphazardly."
In July of 2008 the HSRA approved the Bay Area Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and selected the Pacheco Pass route despite clear evidence that an alternative route along the Altamont Pass route would have fewer environmental and community impacts, serve more riders, and likely cost less. The Planning and Conservation League, along with Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund and the California Rail Foundation filed the lawsuit to overturn the EIR route decision. The Town of Atherton and City of Menlo Park later joined the lawsuit.
Judge Kenny found the EIR inadequate on several fronts. Specifically, he found that the project description of the alignment of the HSR tracks between San Jose and Gilroy was inadequate and that the EIR failed to address the Union Pacific Railroad's refusal to make its right-of-way available for High-Speed Rail. Further Judge Kenny found that the EIR was not specific enough regarding the potential impacts various routes would have on surrounding businesses and homes which may be displaced, the Monterey Highway or Union Pacific's use of its right-of-way.
"We are confident that once the Authority completes a fair and objective review they will decide that the Altamont Pass route is the best choice for California," said Andolina. "We get one shot to do this project right. In this case, we have to measure twice to cut once."
###
The Planning and Conservation League (PCL) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit lobbying organization, working in the State Legislature and at the administrative level in state government to enact and implement policies to protect and restore the California environment. PCL has played a key role in efforts to pass SB 974.
Merced Sun-Star
Housing prices still show stability
Market likely at bottom but future isn't clear...SCOTT JASON
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/1023975.html
Merced County's median home price dipped slightly in July, though it seems to have stabilized after last year's free-fall.
The median home sales price was $107,500 last month -- 30 percent lower than a year ago when it was $155,000. The figures released last week by Dataquick show that Merced's home values are resting at the bottom.
The lingering question is when prices will begin to appreciate, as many homeowners are still walking away from their crushing mortgages.
Merced County's average selling price has had mild ups and downs this year. It was $105,000 in March and rose to $110,000 in June. Other areas have shown steady improvement. Modesto recorded three months of increases. Now the median home price is at $140,000.
Just as prices seem less volatile, the number of homes on the market is dwindling, leading to mini-bidding wars between buyers. "It's going to take a lot of supply to meet the demand," real estate agent Andy Krotik said Tuesday.
The home-listing services show a supply that will last five weeks. Last year, it was at 20 months.
The dearth of homes makes it tougher for buyers who want to have their mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration.
A house listed at $148,000 received two offers, Krotik said. One was for $155,000 from someone going through a conventional mortgage. The other was $185,000 from FHA borrowers.
The bank went with the buyer using a conventional mortgage because the house probably wouldn't pass the government's appraisal. Homes insured by FHA can't sell for more than they're worth.
The demand for homes by first-time buyers is being fueled by the federal government's $8,000 tax credit. It's set to expire Dec. 1. The National Association of Realtors is lobbying Congress to keep the program going for another year.
Merced remains the county with the highest foreclosure rate in California. July figures compiled by ForeclosureRadar show 507 homes were heading into foreclosure last month. Banks took back 429 homes.
The foreclosure rate has slowed. It was 33 percent higher the previous month and about 50 percent higher last year.
Krotik said one promising sign is that banks are more willing to do short sales. That's when the lender lets a homeowner sell a house for less than what the mortgage is worth. It keeps the house from becoming run-down and doesn't hurt the homeowner's credit as much.
The number of short sales made up 4 percent of the market last year. It's up to 11 percent.
While some owners are losing their homes because of a lost job or other economic circumstances, Krotik said the market is still driven by people making a business decision of whether it's worth paying off a home bought at the boom's height.
For so many, it's not.
Our View: Just listen to us…etc.
Cardoza's in the Valley for many events, just not face to face with his constituents. Editorials are the opinion of the Merced Sun-Star editorial board. Members of the editorial board include Publisher Hank Vander Veen, Executive Editor Mike Tharp, Editorial Page Editor Keith Jones, Copy Desk Chief Jesse Chenault and Online Editor Brandon Bowers.
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/181/v-print/story/1023967.html
We think Rep. Dennis Cardoza should hold public town halls.
It's in his constituents' interest. And in his.
The main motivation would be accessibility. Him to the voters and the voters to him.
He told the Sun-Star and Modesto Bee editorial boards Tuesday that his telephone conferences have reached 5,000 residents. He said on his sojourn back in the Valley this month that nobody has asked him to hold a town hall.
He stopped by the Sun-Star with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. They had come from a meeting at the fairgrounds and were headed out to Los Banos for a Rotary luncheon.
"We won't achieve a consensus with the American people by shouting at each other," Cardoza said.
But a lot of his constituents are asking him to hold town halls. The Sun-Star gets letters, e-mails and Web page comments every day citing the need and criticizing him for not holding them.
The Democrats haven't done a clear enough job explaining the details of health care overhaul. Cardoza and other Democrats need to hold the meetings to help folks understand what the proposed changes are.
Town halls also get people off their backsides and move them into action about issues they care about.
We can think of several other reasons why town halls would be a valid and vital supplement to the way he's meeting Mercedians and others in his district this month:
He now has a Republican opponent: Mike Berryhill, from a family with long and strong political roots in the Valley;
his appearances back home will help dilute the criticism and chatter that, since he moved his family to Maryland last year that he's more out of touch with his district;
as a Blue Dog Democrat, he's supposed to be an independent thinker, not tethered to partisan politics. By holding town halls, when most mainstream Democrats are running scared of them, he can further show his orneriness from politics-as-usual;
he wants us to vote for him next year. Town halls give him face time with supporters, opponents and fence-sitters, who might be swayed by the fact that he showed up;
every economic sector in his district has been battered by the recession. Town halls would let people hear, see and even feel his solutions to their problems;
finally, Cardoza needs to have a town hall meeting -- or more than one -- not for what he might say, but for what he might hear.
But what he might hear if he listens closely and patiently, and weeds out the histrionics on either end of the spectrum, are the worries of concerned Mercedians who look to him for help and leadership.
He and his staff already have tried to counter calls for town halls by pointing out the teleconferences and online forums that his staff claims reach far more people. Technically true -- but it's the same difference between watching the Raiders on TV and going to a game in Oakland. Everybody remembers the live experience more vividly.
Plus, a lot of the people he should reach don't have access to computers -- including many of the 55 percent Latino population that make up our county.
Cardoza's staff is probably worried about the "Fox factor" -- that a lot of the tea parties and town halls held this year across the nation have degenerated into shouting matches, often orchestrated by people on both sides.
But his supporters can counter that their man, Dennis Cardoza, is a Valley man -- a guy who doesn't go looking for fights, but won't run from one either. If he shows grace under pressure, he can win over the regular, reasonable folks.
It's a win-win-win:
For him.
For us.
And for American politics in 2009.
Modesto Bee
Cardoza to Obama: Valley a disaster...J.N. Sbranti
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/831316.html
The Northern San Joaquin Valley is an economic disaster area, and President Barack Obama should see it for himself and start spending more federal dollars in the region.
That's what Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, told the president in a letter this week.
"Seeing the devastation firsthand is the only way you can fully appreciate the extent of the economic destruction plaguing my constituents," Cardoza wrote. "Pursuing farther-reaching solutions to the recession is the only way my suffering communities will obtain the federal resources and assistance they need to keep from falling off the map."
Cardoza has tried to get legislation through Congress to designate the valley as a economic disaster area, but he told the president "the legislative process is slow and cumbersome."
"My constituents cannot wait any longer for economic relief," said Cardoza, noting the region's high unemployment and foreclosure rates. He wants the president to use his executive authority to quickly direct federal funds to the valley.
The congressman wants the Obama administration to distribute additional federal funds to the valley for "public works projects that will create jobs and stimulate the economy."
Cardoza, who wrote Obama a similar letter in March, wants more federal grants for job retention and creation, plus money "to help to keep struggling homeowners in their homes."
Visiting the region would help Obama understand how bad things have become, the congressman said.
Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, agreed that the president should see the valley in person. Radanovich also has written letters to Obama seeking an economic disaster designation for the region.
But not everyone supports Cardoza's efforts.
"It's a politically contrived move on his part to show he's trying to do something for everybody," said Mike Berryhill, who intends to challenge Cardoza in the 2010 election. The Ceres rancher and Republican said Cardoza's political policies are what caused the region's economic disaster.
Fresno Bee
Valley expects to get delay for ozone cleanup...Mark Grossi
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/1616804.html
Ending years of debate, federal officials are about to grant an 11-year delay for the San Joaquin Valley's ozone cleanup campaign.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is scheduled to publish its proposed approval in the Federal Register in the next few days, and it will become official by the end of September.
The action pushes the deadline to 2024, an extension the local air district requested more than two years ago after stormy public discussions with activists. Officials said it was impossible to clean up the air so quickly in one of the nation's most fouled air basins.
But more could have been done for residents, who must suffer more than a decade longer than they should have, said Kathryn Phillips of the Environmental Defense Fund in Sacramento.
"I'm disappointed and feel especially heartbroken for the people, especially children and elderly, who have compromised health already and will have to endure even more years of bad air in the Valley," she said.
Officials at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District said the EPA should have blessed the 2024 deadline years ago. Executive director Seyed Sadredin said the agency set an unrealistically early deadline of 2013 to dodge a fight with activists.
"The EPA did it this way for political convenience," he said.
Federal officials responded that the Clean Air Act directs them to assign deadlines by using a formula based on concentrations of ozone. Officials this week said they will agree to the extension in the next few months because the district has proved that it cannot hit the 2013 target.
"It's up to the state and the district to figure out how to achieve the standard in the shortest time possible," said Kerry Drake, associate director of the EPA's regional air division, based in San Francisco. "If they find they can't do it, then they ask for an extension."
The extension comes with strings. New and expanding businesses will spend more money now on air-quality permits. Several hundred smaller farms must now begin paying permit fees and accounting for pollution.
EPA took more than two years to answer the request, Drake said, because the agency also was studying the same issue for other California districts.
EPA will grant delays for other California air districts, including South Coast, Coachella Valley and Sacramento. The delays range from four to 11 years.
The state has the worst ozone problem in the nation. Ozone is a corrosive gas that forms on warm days in sunlight as vehicle exhaust combines with fumes from such sources as dairies, paint and gasoline. Ozone triggers lung problems, including asthma and bronchitis.
In 2008, the Valley led the nation in ozone violations.
Because of the health problems, Valley activists pushed hard to keep the 2013 deadline. Air officials said that even if all Valley businesses were closed, the deadline could not be met.
The biggest hurdle is replacement of diesel trucks, which could cost billions of dollars over the next decade. Diesel engines are the largest source of nitrogen oxides, a primary building block of ozone.
The local air district has little control over the engines, which are regulated by the California Air Resources Board.
But activists said the air district could have required high-tech add-on devices to control diesel pollution, rather than relying on replacing engines over time.
Activists also suggested more stringent rules, such as prohibiting the use of older farm tractors, trucks and vehicles on bad-air days.
Valley Voice
Motorsports Closer to Funding
Stimulus Funds to be Sought...Rick Elkins
http://www.valleyvoicenewspaper.com/vv/stories/2009/
vv_motorsports_0187.htm
Tulare - City of Tulare officials were hopeful that an announcement could be made this week regarding the first round of financing of the Tulare Motorsports Complex, but a partner in the project said Tuesday that a few more details still needed to be ironed out.
“We're still checking off all the things that we need to get the loan,” said James Bancroft, a limited partner in the massive project. Those “things” include finalizing removing land where the project will be developed from Williamson Act protection, settling the lawsuit with the Sierra Club and finalizing documentation between the city and TMSC regarding the assessment bonds, he said.
In addition, Bancroft said additional work needs to be done on the economic impact of the project “so we can aggressively seek stimulus funds.”
Bancroft said the project is “perfect” for stimulus funding. “The project stimulates 16,000 jobs so it's a proven candidate,” he said.
He added funding, close of escrow and other loose ends should all be tied up by the end of September, with dirt beginning to be moved by the “end of the year.”
The city and the developers are still negotiating with the Sierra Club on its lawsuit. No progress was made in a meeting Tuesday, said Councilmember Phil Vandegrift.
Developers are seeking a $120 million loan to begin the first phase of the project which includes a 55,000-seat race track that promoters say could one day handle NASCAR level races and Indy car races, a quarter mile-long drag strip, at least two hotels, retail shops, an RV park east of the International Agri-Center and the Tulare Golf Course.
The first phase of the project includes the acquisition of the land and site improvements. The $120 million will cover those costs and set up a revolving construction fund. Much of the initial work will be infrastructure – sewer, water, storm drainage.
Bancroft said the TMSC group's cost of the project – which includes the race track and the drag strip – is approximately $400 million.
“All in all, this project, everything that has to be financed, is closing in on a billion dollars,” said Bancroft, adding that is a lot of money that will be pumped into the Tulare County economy.
Vandegrift said the project is coming together. “Now is just the time to dot all the i's and cross all the t's,” he said.
The 711-acre project would front the intersection of Turner Drive and Commercial Drive, where the city plans a Highway 99 interchange, and then work along the alignment of Elk Bayou. There will be two main entrances into the sprawling complex, one off of Commercial Drive (after it is extended) and the other off of Laspina Road, south of the Agri-Center and the soccer playing fields.
Bumpy Road
The project has not been without its share of speed bumps and controversy.
At least three different lawsuits have been filed against the project or its developers and the proposal has stirred much debate in the city.
One main center of controversy was the city paying up front for the environmental impact study on the project with the reported understanding that the developer would put money in an account to pay the city back.
Now, the city getting paid back is contingent upon the project moving forward. City officials say a Community Facilities District (CFD) will be formed that will include a comprehensive financing plan for this project, including paying the city for the approximately $1 million EIR.
Because of the EIR matter, the City Council has yet to approve the proposed 20-year development agreement, which covers a multitude of matters. Included are such things as construction of off-site public improvements, deferral of development impact fees (DIFs), credits to the DIF account based on new sales and hotel taxes generated by the project and creation of a Community Financing District.
Since the 2008 election, most votes by the council on the project have been 3-to-2, with council members Phil Vandegrift, Craig Vejvoda and Richard Ortega mostly supporting the project and council members David Macedo and Wayne Ross opposed.
Ross attempted to get a race track item put on the Sept. 1 agenda, but a council majority decided there was no reason at this time to further discuss the project. (See page 3 of today's Tulare Voice for more on this matter)
Already, the city has gotten approval from the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) to annex the property, and escrow on the 350 acres the developers are purchasing from the International Agri-Center is expected to close when the funding is approved. The developer has made a $500,000 non-refundable payment to the Agri-Center in connection with the escrow
Sacramento Bee
Deeper Sacramento housing crisis is forecast...Darrell Smith
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/v-print/story/2142162.html
A major credit reporting company predicts mortgage delinquency rates will continue rising in the Sacramento area – with 12 percent of homeowners falling at least two months behind on their payments by year's end.
That's nearly twice the national projection and a dramatic jump from just two years ago, when less than 2 percent percent of area homeowners' notes were delinquent.
"California faces some challenges, and that's reflected in the statistics," said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy at TransUnion, one of the nation's three large credit reporting agencies.
"There are serious delinquency rates in California, and it's not out of the woods by the end of the year," Becker added. He predicted the delinquency rates in California would begin falling in 2010.
TransUnion, based in Chicago, analyzed trends in the mortgage industry for the second quarter and offered year-end projections for the Sacramento market and the state.
Today, Sacramento's 60-day mortgage loan delinquency rate – the percentage of homeowners at least 60 days behind on their mortgage payments – stands at 9.62 percent, just below the state's rate of 9.7 percent, according to Trans Union.
The national rate, at 5.81 percent, is projected to rise to 6.93 percent by the end of the year.
California trails just Arizona, Florida and Nevada, which has the highest delinquency rate at nearly 14 percent. Delinquency rates are a key indicator because the 60-day threshold is traditionally seen as a step toward foreclosure.
In markets where home values have dropped most sharply, delinquency and foreclosure rates are highest. By that measure, the capital remains in trouble. In June, more than half of Sacramento-area households owed more on their homes than they were worth, First American CoreLogic reported last week.
"As long as that persists, we'll see delinquencies and foreclosures continue," said Suzanne O'Keefe, an economics professor at California State University, Sacramento. "Until the housing market turns around, there's not much hope for those rates to reverse."
By the end of the year, TransUnion predicts, 12.2 percent of Sacramento-area homeowners and more than 14 percent of homeowners statewide will be at least two months behind on their house payments.
Double-digit percentage unemployment and unpaid furlough days are increasingly catching up with homeowners who have "safe" fixed-rate loans, rather than the subprime loans that initially sparked the housing crisis.
Mike Himes, director of NeighborWorks Homeownership Center in Sacramento, which counsels struggling and first-time homeowners, said his office is seeing more clients facing growing debt and making choices between house payments and other expenses. His clientele includes a growing number of state workers whose paychecks have been pared by unpaid furloughs.
"There's a lot of money borrowed to stay in the house and keep up with living expenses," Himes said. "This is becoming more and more of a problem."
Despite the current darkness, Becker of TransUnion predicted the clouds could lift in 2010. And when they do, the sun will shine more brightly on the Golden State than the rest of the nation. TransUnion predicts that the delinquency rate will fall three times faster than in the nation as a whole.
"We anticipate the recovery will be more robust and last longer" than in other regions of the country, he said.
Stockton Record
Trinitas suit premature, judge rules
Deck head goes here...Dana M. Nichols
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090827/A_NEWS/908270327/-1/A_NEWS
SAN ANDREAS - A judge dealt a setback Wednesday to a lawsuit by Trinitas Golf Club owners Michael and Michelle Nemee that seeks to overturn the rejection of the course by the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors.
Judge Thomas E. Smith ruled in favor of a county demurrer - a request to have the suit rejected as premature. County officials argued that the Nemees can't sue, because the county hasn't taken any action that actually harms the Nemees, so there is no basis for legal dispute.
Assistant County Counsel Janis Elliot said the county government has not acted to stop golfing at the 280-acre property on Ospital Road south of Wallace.
"They are golfing. They are golfing every day," Elliott said.
Still, a number of county officials have said in writing and orally that the land Trinitas occupies is zoned as an agricultural preserve and that golf is not legal on agricultural land. The Board of Supervisors in May rejected a proposal to legalize the golf course by changing the land's zoning to recreation.
In addition to the lawsuit, the Nemees have also challenged an administrative letter they received in late May warning that county code enforcers would act to put a halt to golf, because it is an illegal use in the location. Last Thursday, the Planning Commission rejected the Nemees' appeal. The Nemees could still appeal the decision to the Board of Supervisors.
In the lawsuit and in the Planning Commission appeal, the Nemees argued that golf is legal on their property because it is "agritourism," a secondary business intended to bring in cash to help support their primary occupation, which is growing olives.
Smith did not halt the lawsuit completely but instead granted the demurrer on the suit as filed and granted the Nemees 20 days to amend their suit to find a legal dispute.
Kenneth Foley, the attorney for the Nemees in the lawsuit, urged Smith to take up the case immediately, saying delays work against his clients, who face foreclosure of their property by a bank that loaned millions of dollars for the course's construction.
"The stigma that is cast over this golf course makes it extremely difficult to refinance the situation," Foley said of the county's position that golf is illegal on agricultural land.
The lawsuit needs to proceed as soon as possible, Foley said, "To let the world know that (golf) is legal and permissible."
After the hearing, Michael Nemee reiterated his hope that golf will still be the salvation of his family's olive orchard. "I hope we and the county can work together to find some resolution," he said.
Eureka Times-Standard
Hoopa Tribe, back at the table...Leonard Masten. Leonard Masten is an avid salmon and steelhead fisherman and a former law enforcement officer. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe.
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_13213524?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com
California's water bank is running dry and the Trinity River can't afford to issue any more loans.
California water contracts exceed the amount of water available by more than eight times. Our state's crisis pits stakeholders against each other and leaves water regulators baffled over how to solve the problems their agencies created decades ago.
But the real burden doesn't fall in the laps of Sacramento or Washington D.C. bureaucrats. It churns in the algae ridden pools of shallow rivers. It multiplies with columnaris bacteria in the gills of salmon, as witnessed by our people during the 2002 fish kill. It aches in the hearts of the people who have lived in these communities since time immemorial.
Everybody on the North Coast needs to know that the future of the Trinity River is being written today. Big plans for California water are in the works. The Bay Delta Plan and the Klamath River deals both affect the Trinity River.
We refuse to be left high and dry so Central Valley agriculture interests to the south and power companies to the north can continue to siphon more water away from the North Coast.
For decades, the government diverted up to 90 percent of the Trinity River to quench the mounting thirst of Central Valley agriculture. Mandated protections for the Trinity River were largely ignored, depleting the Klamath-Trinity fishery.
Within 10 years after the Trinity River Division began operation, 80 percent of the Trinity River's fishery resources were destroyed. We have been at the forefront working to restore them ever since.
Commercial fishermen, tribal fishermen and recreational fishermen rely on the Trinity River's production of salmon, but the Trinity River watershed will continue to ail until the 2000 Record of Decision (ROD) is fully implemented.
The ROD is a document that provides assurances for adequate flows and the restoration of the Trinity River. It was signed in 2000 by then Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. Water interests in the Central Valley challenged the ROD, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it in 2004, saying that Trinity River restoration is “unlawfully long overdue.” Reclamation then released prescribed flows down the river, but never fully funded restoration efforts.
While the Trinity now gets the flows called for in the ROD, the North Coast is still entitled to an additional 50,000 acre feet guaranteed by Congress back in 1955, water the county fought tooth and nail for when the Trinity River Division Act was passed.
Bureau of Reclamation officials say Humboldt County's water contract is subsumed in the ROD flows. But, the 1955 congressional act authorizing the Trinity River Division mandates separate flows for fish, wildlife and the future growth of Humboldt County and other downstream water users.
Humboldt County and the tribes deserve the water that is guaranteed to the North Coast.
The Trinity River produces more than 50 percent of the fall Chinook salmon stocks and the lion's share of steelhead stocks that make up the Klamath River's once world famous fishery. The two rivers cannot be treated separately.
Three weeks ago, we joined Klamath Hydropower Settlement Agreement negotiations. The KHA talks coincide with Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) talks. Together, the two deals, if passed by legislators, could pave the way for the removal of four dams on the Klamath River.
We support dam removal. But, we will continue to dispute the KBRA until adequate provisions are included to protect the Trinity River and its fish runs. Moreover, no dam removal agreement can come at the price of a waiver of our fishing rights. We also demand that sufficient interim measures be taken to protect the fishery until the dams come down. As it stands now, the deal guarantees water for irrigators, but fails to guarantee water for fish.
Even if the Klamath River dams come down, pressure on the North Coast's valuable water will continue.
As 'guardians' of the Trinity River, our efforts benefit the entire basin. Humboldt and Trinity Counties benefit, as well as ocean, recreational and commercial fisheries, not to mention the small businesses -- from rafting companies to restaurants -- that span the Trinity and Klamath Rivers from Weaverville to Klamath.
The communities of the North Coast need to work together to protect these rivers. This issue should not be simmered down to a tribal problem. Algae and fish diseases do not discriminate. We are in this together.
We remain optimistic, but the clock is ticking. We support healthy fish as well as healthy local economies and government accountability.
San Francisco Chronicle
The denominator problem: Misleading use of water numbers...Dr. Peter Gleick, President, Pacific Institute
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gleick/detail?entry_id=46314
I'm a believer in the power of facts and numbers to help make public policy. I believe that without good science and without good numbers, it is difficult to make good public policy. And it is impossible to make good public policy with bad numbers.
The good news is that most policy makers understand this. The bad news is that there are people and groups (on both the left and the right) who work to produce or disseminate bad numbers as a way of influencing policy decisions in their favor. I've addressed these broad questions of the misuse of science in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2007 and the Institute launched an Integrity of Science Initiative in 2005 to explore case studies of the abuse and misuse of science. We've described a number of remarkable abuses over the years.
Often, the generation and use of bad numbers comes down to what I describe as the "denominator problem." Numbers are often represented as a percentage or fraction or ratio of something: for example, a new "high efficiency" toilet uses around 20% (or 1.2 gallons divided by 6 gallons) of the water used by an old, pre-1994 toilet. Or the average American uses around 1500 gallons of water each day (calculated by dividing the freshwater used for everything nationwide by the total number of Americans).
But the choice of the denominator has a huge influence over the end result, and there are a growing number of examples where the choice is made for political purposes, to come up with a result more favorable to a particular political position. Here are two examples:
Water Number: 0.019% or something much larger. What is the fraction of groundwater used for bottled water? A substantial amount of the bottled water sold in the United States -- around 60% -- comes from groundwater. This water is typically labeled "spring" water according to regulations set by the FDA. In recent years, there has been growing public opposition to the construction of large spring water bottling plants in small rural communities in Maine, Michigan, California, Colorado, and elsewhere because of fear, and some direct physical evidence, that such large plants adversely affect local groundwater levels, flowing springs, and local wetlands. In response, the bottled water industry, led by the International Bottled Water Association, launched a campaign (including testimony to state and federal legislators) arguing that there was no problem because "ground water withdrawals for bottled water production represent only 0.019% of the total fresh ground water withdrawals in the U.S." Ah, here rears the ugly head of the denominator problem. This number is probably very close to true. It is also completely irrelevant and misleading. The proper denominator should not be total U.S. groundwater withdrawals, it should be some measure of local groundwater availability, or use, or yield -- a much smaller denominator. In this case, a bottled water withdrawal may be a very significant fraction of local groundwater. But by choosing a big denominator, the industry was attempting to disguise a problem.
Water Number: 80 or 41%? Which number best describes the extent of Californian agricultural water use? A second example of a denominator problem is the number used to represent the use of water by the agricultural sector in California. There are two competing camps. The most common number, and the number I typically use, is that the agricultural sector uses around 80 percent of all of the water withdrawn for human use in California (34.2 million acre-feet per year agricultural use divided by a total human use of 43.1 maf). This is the typical approach used by water use analysts, internationally, nationally, and locally. Indeed, the California number is the same as the global estimate of agricultural water use: 80% of the water humans use goes to agriculture. This number, to be polite, drives some in the agricultural community crazy because they think it makes them look bad. They insist on the use of a different denominator: instead of the total amount of water used by humans, they prefer the larger estimate of the total amount of water available in California. Using this number, agriculture only uses around 41% of the state's water -- still a large amount, but much less dramatic than 80%. In this case (unlike the groundwater example above) both numbers are "right" -- they just represent different things, including a different way of thinking about water. The agricultural industry prefers, of course, the larger denominator because it makes their use of water look smaller (40% instead of 80%).
But it also reflects a deeper philosophy held by some that humans ought to be able to put every drop of water to a human use. In the minds of some, any water that flows to the sea (or delta or wetland) in a river is wasted. Most recently, this has been expressed by the "fish versus farms" arguments of the agricultural lobbyists. By making the argument as an "either/or," they are clearly saying if "fish" (read "the environment") have to die in order to water another field, so be it. My approach focuses on how much water different human sectors use, with an implicit belief that ecosystems deserve water too. In other words, we need to figure out how to have both fish and farms.
Denominator problems abound in our daily lives. We are regularly presented with percentages, ratios, and numerical comparisons of all kinds. Beware of misleading numbers and be aware of the philosophies underlying the numbers we see.
Santa Cruz Sentinel
County recommends go-ahead for Cemex quarry expansion...Kurtis Alexander
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_13213106
BONNY DOON -- County planners say a limestone quarry in the hills above Davenport, owned by material supply giant Cemex, could be expanded with little risk to local water supplies.
In a recent review of Cemex's long-proposed quarry expansion, the county concluded that precautions can be taken, like filtering the runoff from mines, to prevent contamination of an underground spring used by Santa Cruz for drinking water.
Cemex, which also runs the cement plant in Davenport, has sought for more than a decade to enlarge its 87-acre quarry by 17 acres. But environmental concerns,
namely the fate of the city's Liddell Spring, have slowed that effort.
The environmental impact report released this summer downplayed the possible threats.
"There are no significant unavoidable impacts," county planner David Carlson said in a presentation Tuesday before the Planning Commission.
The commission, which has final say over the expansion, is scheduled to make a decision Sept. 23.
Despite the county report, which considered years of studies by both Cemex and the Santa Cruz Water Department, city officials remain unconvinced that quarry expansion won't disturb their spring.
"It is irrefutable that the city has lost water production because of mining," city Water Director Bill Kocher said Tuesday.
Kocher says his experience suggests that more mining, which entails blasting on the ground above Liddell Spring, will only mean more contamination of groundwater and less clean water for the city.
The spring, which has provided drinking water for nearly a century, accounts for about 10 percent of the city's total supply.
Cemex officials don't deny that mining can cloud underground water with sediment, but they say the disturbance is "minute." Rainfall, they say, is a much greater cause of turbidity as are other natural phenomena.
The county report recommends Cemex take several measures to reduce the flow of sediment -- no matter what the source -- should the company expand. Among the recommendations are installing drains in the quarry to capture and filter runoff as well as constantly monitor the underground water conditions. The report also says Cemex should pay for any losses the city Water Department might experience.
Planning Commissioner Rachel Dann on Tuesday asked for more specific benchmarks to gauge water contamination and called for more specific penalties should there be disturbances.
"The agreement with Cemex has had so many problems in the past," she said.
Cemex's mining rights date to the 60s, though the county has final say over new development at the quarry.
The quarry's limestone is the primary material used to make cement at the nearby kilns. Cemex officials say the quarry can supply three to four more years' worth of limestone as is, but needs to expand after that.
The current economic climate has temporarily halted Cemex's cement operations, but officials say they intend to be up and running soon, though they have not provided a time line.
The Planning Commission has scheduled another study session on the expansion Sept. 9 and a final public hearing for Sept. 23.
Monterey Herald
CSUMB, Marina, FORA still in talks over development costs...LARRY PARSONS
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_13213526?nclick_check=1
Ten years after the city of Marina and the Fort Ord Reuse Authority went to court about CSU-Monterey Bay's share of redevelopment costs on the former Army base, the three parties are still haggling.
And, the long legal battle is making the backers of a proposed economic development institute at CSUMB nervous.
The dispute, which involves millions of dollars for transportation, water and wildlife-habitat mitigation costs as the university grows, prompted a 2006 state Supreme Court decision that said CSUMB isn't exempt from redevelopment charges.
But three years later, attorneys for the university and the local jurisdictions are still in negotiations about details of a final deal about the issue.
"I am really hopeful we are going to reach a resolution shortly," Marina City Manager Tony Altfeld said Wednesday.
"That is under way," said Scott Faust, CSUMB communications director. "They are working on the language."
The dragged-out negotiations resumed after a court showdown last month was averted.
CSU attorneys were asking the court to rule the university met its obligations. But attorneys for Marina and FORA objected, saying the university's proposal was too open-ended because it would leave important mitigation costs to the whims of the state legislative budget process.
Marina attorney Kenneth Bucher said in court papers that after a decade, things have returned to "precisely where they began."
The hearing was delayed after university attorneys told the court more negotiations would be held.
The proposed institute, which university officials said would occupy a new, 10,000-square-foot building at Gen. Jim Moore Boulevard and Divarty Street, would be a resource center for researchers, entrepreneurs and business people. It would be the third such facility on a CSU campus.
Last week, the president of the Monterey County Business Council urged the Marina City Council to seek a quick resolution because of an approaching deadline to apply for a grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
The university and business council received an EDA planning grant of $180,000 for the institute in June, saying the next stage would be to seek construction money for the project.
Business Council President Mary Ann Leffel told the Marina council that Oct. 1 is the deadline to submit a grant application for $6.5 million to the EDA.
"We thought we had agreement in June ... and two months later they are still going back and forth," Leffel said Wednesday.
She said the group doing the institute planning continues to move ahead, but "there is always that little degree of uncertainty."
As a result of the litigation, CSUMB scaled back its master plan — reducing its projected 2025 enrollment from 25,000 students to 12,000 — and produced a new environmental impact project on its growth plans. The documents were approved by CSU trustees in May.
Calls to a FORA attorney and the reuse agency's executive director were not returned Wednesday.
But until the lingering lawsuit over infrastructure costs is put to rest, a question mark would remain for any expansion project on the CSUMB campus.
"I can't speak to the legal nuances. They are separate but intertwined," Faust said.
Nevertheless, Faust said, nothing, including the proposed economic development institute, has been delayed or put on hold by the university because of the unresolved lawsuit.
"We remain excited about the prospect of the institute," he said. "It is very important for the university and the region."
Leffel said the ongoing litigation has pushed back applying for a construction-funding grant by at least two to three weeks.
"At this point, the only people making money are the attorneys," she said.
Altfeld said it is important for surrounding cities and the county to protect their interests as the university grows.
"All the land-use jurisdictions — Seaside, Marina and the county — have horses in the race," he said.  
The Christian Science Monitor
Water-use saga: The return of Glen Canyon
After a beautiful landscape reemerged, a new plan for Lake Powell water usage has taken shape....Kurt Lancaster
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/08/26/water-use-saga-the-return-of-glen-canyon/
Flagstaff, Ariz.
“I don’t know that there’s very many people in the world who want to kiss, love, hug, lick, touch, and talk to sandstone,” says 89-year-old Katie Lee, as she sums up the loss she felt when the 170-mile Glen Canyon in Arizona was dammed in 1965. The Colorado River backed up, creating one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, Lake Powell, etching about 2,000 miles of shoreline as it flooded the main canyon and nearly 200 side canyons.
The purpose of the dam was to help meet the water supply of growing Western cities from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. But Ms. Lee, a former Hollywood actress who moved to Arizona and later became the winner of the Glen Canyon Institute’s David Brower Award for outstanding environmental activism, would emotionally refer to the event as a “drowning.”
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam near Page, Ariz., was a controversial project from its inception in 1956. Environmentalists pointed out that numerous natural wonders would be submerged. They also raised issues of land use and the cost to the environment.
For Lee, her love affair with Glen Canyon began more than 50 years ago when she first floated down the Colorado River into a rare wilderness area that Annette McGivney, author of a new book about Glen Canyon, says is “possibly more beautiful than [the] Grand Canyon.”
Landscape photographer James Kay was only a child when the dam flooded the canyon, but he later heard stories that described the landscape lying below the surface of Lake Powell as an “inspiring, magical place.”
In 1995, he visited the site of Cathedral of the Desert, one of those submerged natural formations. Reflecting back on the moment, he remembers thinking, “I probably will never get to see it, and it’s really a shame.”
Lee and Mr. Kay may have felt something of an affinity with the characters in Edward Abbey’s 1975 novel, “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” who planned the destruction of Glen Canyon Dam. But now the Colorado River and Glen Canyon aren’t what they once were – and it has nothing to do with fictional ecoterrorists.
A drought beginning in 1999 caused a 145-foot drop in Lake Powell’s water level by 2005, exposing the once-submerged canyons to sunlight, air, and public view.
When Kay discovered the lake’s plummeting levels, he put on his backpack, grabbed his camera, and, along with Ms. McGivney, documented a “resurrection” of Glen Canyon over a period of five  years, hiking areas untouched by humans for decades.
McGivney notes how she felt: “I’m like an explorer going into a place that has never been charted before.”
At one point, Kay trekked to Cathedral of the Desert, which was no longer submerged, and “spent six hours in there photographing it as the light changed and the sun moved through the canyon. It was one of the most profound days of my life.”
McGivney remembers “walking 100 feet below the high-water mark” in a canyon “so narrow you could touch [the walls with] both hands.” Looking up, she noticed pink and purple colors high up on the wall, “and I realized it was the paint of jet skis [that] had gotten stuck in this narrow” before the drought.
Kay and McGivney documented their expeditions in “Resurrection: Glen Canyon and a New Vision for the American West.”
“It’s not just about Glen Canyon,” McGivney says in an interview at a recent book signing. “It’s about everybody in the West and how we live.”
The book champions the idea that environmentalists and Western water managers can make better decisions:
“Lake Powell is half full, and Lake Mead is half full,” McGivney says. “You’ve got two giant reservoirs evaporating massive amounts of water” into the desert air. “If you send all the water from Lake Powell – or most of it – into Lake Mead and fill Lake Mead, then you would cut that evaporation loss in half,” an amount, she believes, that’s enough to meet the water needs of Las Vegas.
Balaji Rajagopalan, lead researcher of a study to be published by Water Resources Research, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, agrees with McGivney up to a point. He calls her idea “low-hanging fruit” that could “mitigate water supply risk.” But stressing water preservation over the preservation of nature, Dr. Rajagopalan suggests that it would be more logical to “store more water in Lake Powell, as it is at a higher elevation/latitude relative to Lake Mead and thus will have less evaporation.”
Other scientists bring up the possibility that global warming could increase the drought in the Colorado River Basin area, greatly lessening the river’s flow and affecting the reservoir system if water management practices aren’t changed.
In “Resurrection,” McGivney argues that Lake Powell is really a “holding tank” for large agribusinesses: “80 percent of that is sucked up by agriculture [growing] water-intensive crops like alfalfa, hay, and cotton that are grown not to satisfy market demand but to take advantage of a tangled web of subsidies and tax breaks,” she writes.
That makes the issue a political one.
Barry Wirth, regional public-affairs officer of the US Bureau of Reclamation, Upper Colorado Region, insists that Glen Canyon’s water management isn’t political, but governed by law.
He hasn’t read McGivney’s book and therefore doesn’t want to take issue with its author, but notes that the 1922 Colorado River Compact governs how much water states can receive from the river, with the upper basin states – Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming obliged to meet a certain amount of the needs of the lower basin states – Arizona, California, and Nevada. (Currently, the upper basin states consume slightly more than half their allotment, while the lower basin states consume 110 percent of theirs.)
However, in light of the effects of the drought, a new agreement – the Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lakes Powell and Mead – has been finalized after an 18-month study. It covers water planning through 2026 – from agricultural use to recreation.
The research done by Rajagopalan’s team considered “a couple of different demand management and reservoir operation alternatives that can help mitigate increased risk for water supply due to demand growth and flow reduction due to climate change,” he says.
These will be given to the Bureau of Reclamation for consideration. But however it finally deals with the drought, McGivney argues in an interview that people who live in the desert should “embrace the fact that [they] live in a desert.” They should stop living like “the way people in Kentucky live,” as though rainfall is abundant.
These changes in attitude could “lead to a different set of values that guide people” in how they utilize scarce water resources, she says.
The Sierra Club and other organizations have called for the draining of Glen Canyon.
Both McGivney and Kay argue for a regulated water flow from Glen Canyon Dam, keeping Lake Powell around one-third to one-half full. This would allow city water needs to be met and the side canyons to recover, but still permit continued recreational use.
As Kay puts it, “You can go out there and jet-ski, and motorboat, or water-ski, and do whatever you want … and you can also hike in the side canyons,” because even at half capacity, there’s “119 square miles [of water] still there.”
That vision isn’t likely to become reality quickly, however.
As Mr. Wirth notes, only Congress can change the way the Bureau of Reclamation regulates Glen Canyon Dam. And the lower basin states have more than three times the politicians in Congress than the upper basin states.
Also, should the drought recede and the policy not be changed, the canyons will flood again.
But those who have witnessed the “return” of much of Glen Canyon are holding out hope that it may be permanent. Indeed, since the early 2005 low, Lake Powell has risen to about 50 to 60 percent of capacity, submerging many of the side canyons once again. But since the lake is not full — and may not be full for some time — some of the canyons are still accessible for exploration.
Perhaps Lee says it best, talking about why she fell in love with the area in the 1950s: “You begin to talk to a place like that and it talks back to you.”
Now, the cottonwoods are returning, petroglyphs are exposed, and orange sedimentary canyons glow in the sunset. Glen Canyon is talking back.
CNN Money
Problem bank list tops 400
Number of troubled lenders continues to mount, hitting its highest level since June 1994, FDIC reports. Deposit insurance fund falls by 20%...David Ellis. CNNMoney.com senior writer Jennifer Liberto contributed to this report.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/27/news/companies/fdic_list/
index.htm?postversion=2009082715
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of institutions on the government's so-called "problem bank" list surpassed 400 in the latest quarter, climbing to its highest level in 15 years, according to a government report published Thursday.
The numbers, published as part of a broader survey on the nation's banking system by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, revealed that the number of banks at risk of failing reached 416 during the second quarter.
The FDIC, which insurers bank deposits, has been hit by a wave of relatively large and costly failures as of late, prompting concerns about the size of the agency's insurance fund. To that end, the FDIC reported that the fund decreased by $2.6 billion, or 20%, during the quarter to $10.4 billion.
The number of banks under scrutiny by regulators has moved steadily higher since the recession began in late 2007. A year ago, the number of banks on the FDIC's watch list was 117. At the end of this year's first quarter, the number stood at 305.
FDIC chairman Sheila Bair said she expected the trend to continue.
"We expect the number of problem banks and failures will remain elevated even as the economy begins to recover," she said Thursday.
"We expect the number of problem banks and failures will remain elevated even as the economy begins to recover," she said Thursday.
The names of the banks on the list are never made available to the general public by regulators out of fear that depositors at those institutions may prompt a so-called "run on the bank."
Regulators indicated that the number of assets controlled by those institutions, however, climbed to $299.8 billion in the latest quarter, up from $220 billion in the previous period.
Over the years, the problem bank list has been viewed as a telling, albeit backwards-looking, barometer on the overall health of the nation's banking industry.
Still, few of the lenders that are on the list actually reach the point of failure. On average, just 13% of banks on the FDIC's problem list have been seized and shuttered by regulators.
So far this year, 81 banks have failed, and dozens more are expected to follow as banks cope with continued losses in real estate and various consumer loans.
Gauging performance
As a group, banks lost $3.7 billion during the second quarter, hurt in large part by their decision to set aside money to insulate themselves against bad loans, according to Thursday's report.
In a sign of how much of a trouble spot the issue of credit remains for many lenders, the percentage of loans and leases where borrowers were behind on payments rose to 4.35%, the highest level since banks first started reporting that data to regulators in 1983. Last quarter, the delinquency ratio was 3.76%.
Bair suggested however, that banks might be turning a corner in that respect, citing improvement among some real estate-related loans and a drop in the number of loans more than 30 days past due.
"We're going to need another quarter or two to confirm a trend," she said.
Still, Bair indicated that the agency was bracing for more failures, adding that it would look to replenish the agency's depleted insurance fund. So far this quarter, there have already been two significant bank failures: Texas-based Guaranty and Colonial BancGroup of Alabama.
Bair said Thursday that regulators would likely impose a special assessment on banks sometime next month to help replenish the insurance fund. That's on top of another special assessment against banks earlier this year.
What remains uncertain, however, is whether such precautionary measures would prevent the FDIC from having to tap its $500 billion credit line from the Treasury Department, which was approved earlier this year.
Bair downplayed the idea, but did not rule it out altogether.
Regulators could levy even more assessments against banks to avoid using funds from the Treasury. But such a move could harm many of the banks that are trying to survive the current crisis, notes Frank Barkocy, director of research at Mendon Capital Advisors, a money manager that invests primarily in bank stocks.
Barkocy said that if higher fees "push others to the brink" then the FDIC might want to consider other options, such as money from the Treasury, instead.
 
8-27-09
Meetings
8-4-09 Merced County Board of Supervisors Meeting...10:00 a.m.
http://www.co.merced.ca.us/index.aspx?nid=1333
Current Agenda (Posted 72 Hours Prior To Meeting)
 
MCAG
http://www.mcagov.org/
Atwater-Merced Expressway - Castle Commercial Center Presentation
view AME presentation ...
http://www.mcagov.org/pdfs/2009/AME/FnlPre061709.pdf
 
MCAG September Calendar 
9-3-09 - Technical Planning Committee Meeting...10:00 a.m.
http://www.mcagov.org/tpc.html
9-4-09 - Citizens Advisory Committee Meeting...8:30 a.m.
http://www.mcagov.org/cac.html
9-9-09 - Technical Review Board Meeting
9-17-09 - Governing Board Meeting